Host of stars feature in the Phoenix Park

SO you thought stardust was only in the eye of the beholder. Not true. It is out there, and it's free.

Clouds permitting, you can see stardust this weekend. Astronomy Ireland is hosting a stardust watch in the Phoenix Park tomorrow from 10 p.m. at the Papal Cross.

By 1 a.m. on Monday "hundreds of shooting stars" should be showering Earth.

But what are these "shooting stars"? "Dust left from old comets," says Mr Edmund Coyle of Astronomy Ireland. It seems that at about this time every year, Earth passes through the dust of old man Comet Swift Tuttle, who popped his clogs a long, long time ago, threw his hat at it and his dust into that part of the heavens known as the Perseids area.

It surrounds the Perseus constellation, named after the Greek god Perseus - son of Jupiter, slayer of the gorgon Medusa, and deliverer of Andromeda from the clutches of a sea monster. Those Greek gods didn't sit around gathering dust.

As we journey through this dust to dust of old Swift Tuttle, some of it enters our atmosphere. The result is fireworks. As the dust particles, or meteorites - some about pebble size - are pulled in by gravity to the air above us they burn briefly, brightly, creating a "shooting star" effect.

On an average, cloudless night there are about six per hour. On Monday there will be hundreds and hundreds.

And you thought every shooting star was a soul going to heaven. Besides going the wrong way, it's just dust coming to Earth. And never getting there, as all is burnt up in the atmosphere.

But you might even catch a falling star. Put it in your pocket. Keep it for a rainy day. You won't have long to wait. And that should bring you down to Earth.